Ethan Lindenberger

My mom got a lot of her beliefs from social media, from Facebook, and from organizations that were allowing their platforms to push lies that were very

dangerous.

Now, I also saw that as I was doing this, and I was doing this as respectfully as I could and as accurately as I could, I was getting a lot of criticism.

A lot of very angry people.

I know when I was in D.C.

for that testimony I gave, I remember I was looking around the office building, and three ladies got in an elevator with me and said, I'm the reason that children are being maimed and murdered, and I am basically Hitler.

So...

That was fun.

And so really, for most circumstances, for most teenagers and most people, when they get criticized, this leads to doubt.

And that doubt leads to questioning, and that questioning leads to quitting.

Because when you have a topic that you're interested in or a movement that you want to be a part of, and you're taking a stance and you're saying what's true, good ideas don't avoid criticism.

And for especially young people, they have a hard time dealing with that.

And these important discussions that need young people to take a part in,

It takes a lot of commitment.

And I'm not sitting here saying that I'm amazing and I'm cool, but here's the thing that's important.

Through me joining this movement and this important scientific discussion, here's what happened.

Facebook changed their platform.

They were going to change how they approach anti-vax content.

And then recently, GoFundMe took down anti-vax campaigns.

We're talking about how movements like this are causing actual change, actually impacting the way this game is played and the misinformation that's lying to people and convincing them of very dangerous ideas.